Distributed systems are fast becoming the norm in computer science. Formal mathematical models and theories of distributed behaviour are needed in order to understand them. This book proposes a distributed pi-calculus called Dpi, for describing the behaviour of mobile agents in a distributed world. It is based on an existing formal language, the pi-calculus, to which it adds a network layer and a primitive migration construct. A mathematical theory of the behaviour of these distributed systems is developed, in which the presence of types plays a major role. It is also shown how in principle this theory can be used to develop verification techniques for guaranteeing the behavior of distributed agents. The text is accessible to computer scientists with a minimal background in discrete mathematics. It contains an elementary account of the pi-calculus, and the associated theory of bisimulations. It also develops the type theory required by Dpi from first principles.

Graduate text on the p-calculus, a mathematical model of mobile computing systems.

First account of new theory of communication in computing which describes networks, as well as parts of computer systems.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 4th International Colloquium on Theoretical Aspects of Computing, ICTAC 2007 held in Macau, China in September 2007. The 29 revised full papers presented together with 3 invited talks and summaries of 2 tutorials were carefully reviewed and selected from 69 submissions. The aim of the colloquium is to bring together practitioners and researchers from academia, industry and government to present research results, and exchange experience, ideas, and solutions for their problems in theoretical aspects of computing such as automata theory and formal languages, principles and semantics of programming languages, software architectures and their description languages, software specification, refinement, and verification, model checking and theorem proving, real-time, embedded and hybrid systems, theory of parallel, distributed, and internet-based (grid) computing, simulation and modeling, and service-oriented development.

Originally published in 2002, this book presents techniques in the application of formal methods to object-based distributed systems. A major theme of the book is how to formally handle the requirements arising from OO distributed systems, such as dynamic reconfiguration, encapsulation, subtyping, inheritance, and real-time aspects. These may be supported either by enhancing existing notations, such as UML, LOTOS, SDL and Z, or by defining fresh notations, such as Actors, Pi-calculus and Ambients. The major specification notations and modelling techniques are introduced and compared by leading researchers. The book also includes a description of approaches to the specification of non-functional requirements, and a discussion of security issues. Researchers and practitioners in software design, object-oriented computing, distributed systems, and telecommunications systems will gain an appreciation of the relationships between the major areas of concerns and learn how the use of object-oriented based formal methods provides workable solutions.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 12th IFIP WG 6.1 International Conference on Formal Methods for Open Object-Based Distributed Systems, FMOODS 2010, and the 30th IFIP WG 6.1 Formal Techniques for Networked and Distributed Systems, FORTE 2010, held in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, in June 2010. The 13 revised full papers presented together with 6 short papers and the abstract of one invited talk were carefully reviewed and selected from 38 submissions. The papers are organized in topical sections on formal UML modeling; components and architecture; timed process algebra; timed and hybrid automata; program logics and analysis; and reasoning about distributed systems.

Collects the Latest Research Involving the Application of Process Algebra to ComputingExploring state-of-the-art applications, Process Algebra for Parallel and Distributed Processing shows how one formal method of reasoning-process algebra-has become a powerful tool for solving design and implementation challenges of concurrent systems. Parallel Pr